Living off of crypto 💳
I quit my job of many years last November, just a day before Thanksgiving. So far it was one of the best decisions ever. I have worked for many years (since 2017) to save up all of my crypto and start living my life in a new way. This fresh path would be one that is carved by actually using my crypto daily to live off of, rather than just never touching it and stacking day after day. It would be nice to continue to accumulate at a rapid pace like I was doing, but I'm willing to sacrifice some financial growth in order to regain some more freedom in my life.
One of the first things I did when I knew that I was no longer going to be working at my old job was upgrade my main crypto Visa card over on https://crypto.com/us/cards. I had already used the free version of this debit card a few times here and there, but upgrading would be better for me long term for many reasons. I decided to go with the mid-tier and selected the Royal Indigo card. All of the upgraded cards are metal, rather than the typical plastic. This would be just one of the many benefits of my new card, but I had no idea how long it would actually take to receive it. Luckily, I had a digital card to use for online purchases, but it left me unable to easily convert my crypto to spendable fiat for a period of time.
First, I had to stake $4,000 worth of CRO for 180 days. That is a decent bit of money, but it wasn't an issue for me. I didn't want to go for the higher card tiers with $40,000 and $400,000 staking options. The benefits were not big enough for me to lock that amount away, especially considering that I stake so much HIVE already.
Then I just had to be patient and hope that my shiny new card would arrive soon, but it didn't. Crypto.com exploded in growth right at the time that I finally quit my job and ordered a new card. The LA Laker's old Staples Center was renamed to Crypto.com Arena. Matt Damon and LeBron James have been in ads promoting the company. Plus many other partnerships have increased the Crypto.com demand in a big way. This slowed the shipment of new cards to an absolute snail's pace.
The main reason that I decided to stake and upgrade my card was to start getting 3% cashback in the form of their CRO token. This was triple the amount of the 1% that the free card offers. It still isn't quite as juicy as the 8% back that the highest tier Obsidian enables, but I was happy to see some better numbers for myself nonetheless. This was going to be huge for me considering I would be using this card for most of my purchases.
The stake also receives 10% p.a., which is a nice little bonus. I get CRO deposited to my wallet each week and also earn cashback daily. The coolest part is that I may get $2 cashback on something and then the price of CRO goes up (or down, let's not talk about that though), and it could then be worth $3. If I time when I top up my card with my free CRO, I can surely get much better than the claimed 3% cashback.
Another bonus to this card is that I receive an instant rebate for Spotify and Netflix membership. This isn't a massive incentive, but they are both services that I use and I like the gesture here. I would love to see other companies get on board. It sure would be awesome if all of my apps started paying me CRO just to keep a membership with them. I would espeically be happy to see YouTube join the perk list. I refuse to pay $15/month just to be able to skip ads and listen to my videos when I'm not in the app.
Now back to exactly how long it took to get my new Royal Indigo physical card. I started my $4,000 CRO stake on November 25th, 2021, and ordered my new card on that same day. I finally received my new debit card on February 8th, 2022. It took Crypto.com 75 days to give me what I paid for. This is pretty unacceptable in my opinion. I am used to waiting no longer than a week for a card. I get that these cards are metal and may take longer production-wise. There also was a massive surge in orders right around this time. Even with both of those things, I think that nearly 50% of my 180-day stake is entirely too long to have to wait. The card is here now though, so I won't be complaining anymore about it.
I've had my physical card for a full month now and am loving it. This thing works exactly how I expect it to. It really is so nice to watch my CRO balance increase pretty much every time that I buy something. Some types of purchases are excluded such as electricity bills, money orders, and others. You can find a full list of exclusions on https://help.crypto.com/en/articles/4597450-restriction-of-cro-rewards-program. Even with that drawback, it is not uncommon for me to have $100+ dollars earned each week that I can then just put right back on my debit card to spend or just HODL.
The app works fairly well, although things could be better organized. I am used to it now and am in love with how I can instantly add money to my card at any time. I don't really look forward to next year's tax season since Crypto.com does require KYC. My use of this card will be reported to the IRS, but I'm hoping that https://tax.crypto.com/ makes it fairly straightforward.
I first discovered this payment platform back in 2018 when their token was still Monaco (MCO). It is now known as Cronos (CRO).
KRONOS (Cronus) was the King of the Titanes and the god of time, in particular, times when viewed as a destructive, all-devouring force. He ruled the cosmos during the Golden Age after castrating and deposing his father Ouranos (Uranus, Sky) Source
That is some pretty hardcore Greek mythology. Sounds like Crypto.com has plans to help castrate the traditional financial system which has been taking advantage of us for ages.
The card itself doesn't actually say crypto on it anywhere. It just has the Crypto.com logo, my name, and then some general card info on the backside. Despite that, I have had one person actually recognize that it is a crypto debit card from the logo alone. This may not sound that crazy, but here in West Virginia, basically, nobody knows about (let alone uses) crypto. I've had a couple of merchants comment on how my card is heavier than everyone else's too. Both of these things are pretty cool, but it is even cooler than I am finally able to live my life how I choose once again thanks to crypto.
Does anybody else use a Crypto.com debit card? I know that here in the USA it is one of the best options. Not sure if it is actually the best, but it suites my needs very well. I know it is not exclusive to the USA, but it also isn't available in every single country either. I would love to hear other people's experiences with using Crypto.com's card. Leave a comment below if you have any insight or questions.
My NFTs: https://inji.com/@daltono/nfts
| Join my fanbase on hive.vote ✅☑️ | Delegate Hive Power 👏 | Create a free Hive account 🗽 | Follow me on Twitter 🗣🐦 |
|---|---|---|---|
| click here | click here | click here | click here |
Discord: Daltono#5080
They renamed to Cronos a while ago, their second rebranding in their lifetime. I have the same tier but in jade green color, but I unstaked my CRO/MCO because they have lost my trust. I need my card company to give me a sense of stability and predictability. I love the card and they have the best benefits by far, but it is not worth it when they don’t have my trust. They spend too much spamming ads, they need to show they have more than just marketing, showing that they can make a profit and will not go bankrupt from all that spending would be a good start.
CRO was just CRO for a while though, no? I guess they decided CRO needed to mean something and they went with Cronos.
I almost went with the Jade Green, but seeing that Royal Indigo shines in the reflection of light makes me happy I went with this one. I was thinking of unstaking my CRO once the 180 days are up, is there any downside to doing that? Do you lose perks of any sort?
I know what you mean with the lack of trust and stability though. Their customer service doesn't offer much support other than automated and it just makes you wonder how they actually operate. They sure seem to be making some big deals with popular faces, but they also are in control of the CRO supply.
As for the card, it is great. I just dread having to go through all of my top-ups for taxes next year. How did that go for you? Or is there a way around it? I don't see how since they KYC'd the fuck out of us.
Abou taxes Inhave no Idea, every year I pay an accountant to do my taxes for me I just send all my forms and data and don't even think about it.
For the perks yes, you lose them if you unstake, you still get 1% Cashback though but that is all
So they do send the data over. I figured they did but wasn't sure since this will be my first year really using my card a lot. I guess I will see how things are looking in 77 days when my staking period is over.
Wait, I think you misunderstood me. I do not knonw if they send data and if so how or what or who do they send to. I meant that every year I print all my bank activity and I by myself forward all my history to my accountant to run the numbers and declare my taxes for me. I don't like accounting so I by myself get all the information I can and forward to an account I trust, Crypto does not do that for me as far as I know (if they did I could save accounting money), I manually export it all and forward to a trusty accountant
This is all that I have found so far. I haven't used it yet though.
https://tax.crypto.com/
This looks sweeet! I would love to own one but sadly not available in India.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
I am really liking it so far. I haven't had any issues, besides having to wait forever to get my physical card. Hopefully India has an alternative that allows you to use your crypto easily in a similar manner.
Nice one I like black. It's a great card to have. All the metal cards are good. Enjoy dear. ❤️
Yea the black sure would be nice to have. 400K is a lot of money though. Having a heavier card that is more durable is a great bonus. Take note that the free Midnight Blue card is a regular plastic VISA.
This is awesome man I love seeing people living off their crypto. I’ve been waiting on my Gemini credit card for awhile, hoping I get it soon.
Thanks, my friend! I can't believe I am finally to the point of actually using this rather than just stacking every little bit. It is nice to have something to live off of other than dirty fiat.
Yes I do but I am still waiting. I orderd the red one
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
The red one was one of my favorite looking metal card options. I wish they had a teal or turquoise one.
Is the red one good? I love that you have no fees for uploading the card with fiat money.
On Binance I think you have 1,8%
They are all good and worth the wait... trust me, it will arrive EVENTUALLY.
The main difference between Ruby Red and Green/Indigo is that you’ll get 2% cash back instead of 3%, that’s still better than 1% with the free Blue card. The red also doesn’t give you free Spotify or Netflix, but some people don’t even use those services, so I’m sure that’s not a huge deal. Plus you only had to stake $400 worth of CRO, that’s a pretty good deal. You are going to love how solid and sleek your new red card is once it comes in. You should already be able to use the virtual version of the card for online purchases. Just be aware that your virtual & physical card numbers will stay the same, but the expiration date will change once you get your physical card.
I think you get more if you stake. I am not sure if the red one gets profit ons staking. ;-) But anyway CRO can go up to 400 $
sounds and looks pretty good. :) I'm gonna look into getting me a card now.. Thanks for that really good review.
It is a pretty convenient thing to have. Remember that you can always get the free card to test it out before staking.
The rewards earned on this comment will go directly to the person sharing the post on Twitter as long as they are registered with @poshtoken. Sign up at https://hiveposh.com.
ps. Congrats again on freeing the genie!! :)
🧞♂️